Last minute recommendation

I am taking the family on a short notice trip and would like to get everyone a semi nice LED light for night time beach combing. I don't have time to order online so I need to pick it up locally. I would like to get a recommendation for a light with the following general requirements:

Need to be able to pick it up locally, Target, Sears, Sams Club etcetera. In the St. Louis area.

Prefer AA batteries since I have a boatload of them

Prefer a single Luxeon 1 or 3Watt

Prefer regulated circuit

Would like to keep it in the $20 to $30 range.

I have a couple of older 1W Elements from Sam's club but the AAA 1000mAh batteries barely give them 20 minutes of runtime.

Thanks in advance…

Faz

I saw a 1 AA River Rock 1 watt Luxeon for $20.00 at Target when I was in the States on vacation. The package said something like 2 hours runtime. I did not buy it because it was a single level light but it might meet your criteria.

I got THIS at Lowe's Home Improvement for under $30.00. Has a beautiful high intensity white beam. Takes 3 AA's, and has a rated runtime of 100 hours. It also has a true tactical momentary on switch and fits very nicely in to the palm of your hand. I love this light and would highly recommend it.

Check out a store called Batteries Plus...there is one in St. Louis (3567 Ritz Center according to their website....there are other locations in Mo that might be better for you so check their site). This store carries a nice selection of Streamlight products, Pro Poly in single or multiple config should suit your needs (the multi led version may be better for night beach searching as the beam has more flood). Even though you are looking for single LED you may consider a Twin Task as any one of them would probably be great for your purposes (I am thinking the incan might show some colors more clearly on a beach at night).
The good news is the store is local and Streamlight is a great product with no nonsense warranty.
Hope this helps.....have a fun and safe trip!

if you have to go to target, i like the river rock 3 watt camo 2aa.

someone here mentioned they had mag lites on sale at walmart. mag 2d led for 20-25 and the mag led 2aa or 3aa for 20?

good luck

MiniMag LEDs 2AA and 3AA are pretty good. And the River Rock 1AA Luxeon(Nuwai X1) and 2AA Luxeon(Nuwai X3) are also pretty good. For the Riverrock, look at your local Target and the Maglites should be available there too. Look on Flashlight Reviews for runtime.

Have a fun trip!

Update
I picked up a MiniMag 2AA and a River Rock Camo 3W 2AA. The River Rock has a much brighter light both a spot and a flood. I think the mini Mag will be going back. The threaded part of the aluminum housing is not well cut and I can tell it will not last very long.

I need to look at it in more detail but it appears that the 1W Elements are just as bright when doing a simple test on the wall. I will put the light meter on it tonight and see.

Still.. Thanks for the suggestions. The River Rock should do just great for the trip. I may grab one of the single AA lights just to see how they compare. I looked all over last weekend (Sams Club, ****s, WalMart, Radio Shack and Bass Pro and came up empty. You folks save me a lot of miles.

Faz

Good choice on the River Rock Camo 3W. A friend of mine has one and it's a nice light!

Gunner12 said:

MiniMag LEDs 2AA and 3AA are pretty good. And the River Rock 1AA Luxeon(Nuwai X1) and 2AA Luxeon(Nuwai X3) are also pretty good. For the Riverrock, look at your local Target and the Maglites should be available there too. Look on Flashlight Reviews for runtime.

Have a fun trip!

Click to expand...

exactly, for the camo it functions better with a nimh battery if you have some around. flat output in comparison to alkaline
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/nuwai_x-3.htm

Streamlight ProPolymer Lux. I love this light. Runs on 4AA and has a 3 hour runtime on alkaline/almost 5 hour runtime on NiMh.

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/streamlight_propolyluxeon.htm

Throw your zip in and find a dealer. I put in the zip 63124 and I came up with 6 dealers around that area (dunno if that is even close to you...).

http://www.streamlite.com/locator.jsp

I have the River Rock 1W Luxeon single AA tactical style light.

It's a pretty solid little light if you are looking for a very simple 1 mode reverse clicky light with nice throw and side spill.

Run time is just over 2 hours on either alkaline or NiMH batteries with really flat regulation (unfortunatly a little TOO flat, because there is no 'moon mode' to warn that the battery is getting weak, the light just cranks along at full power until it suddenly stops).

There is only 1 power mode, so the output cannot be reduced to improve the run time.

Build quality is pretty good, but the lens seems to be cheap plastic rather than the much more scratch resistant glass you will find on other non 'department store' models.

Overall I think that the River Rock 1w single AA light is quite good for a department store light, and that it's a good value for the money, but I have seen CREE lights here (like the JetBeam) which sell at close to the same price point, are brighter, have scratch resistant glass lenses, and offer adjustable output modes.

The plastic lens is my biggest gripe because the lens seems to get scratched no matter how careful you are, then the scratches show up as annoying shadows in the spill beam.

Still, even if the lens gets all scratched up, you can always install a diffuser disk on the light to convert it to a really nice 'floody' type light. This will tend to hide any annoying scratch shadows and give a nice even wide beam that is great for reading maps, or finding things at the bottom of a backpack.

The single AA 1w Luxeon RR light does have nice throw however, and some will not want to loose that, so I think a better approach might be to cut a perfectly circular disk out of that self adhering anti-scratch plastic used to protect PDA screens etc, and install this on the front plastic lens BEFORE the lens gets scratched.

I already have a 'floody' converted light, so I think I will give this 'PDA screen protector plastic' approach a try on my 1w River Rock that is not yet scratched.

Does anyone know a brand of this PDA screen protector stuff that works well in resisting scratches and that is widely available at a reasonable cost at a local home or office supply store?

Just off the top of my head....

1) Dorcy 1AA model found at K-Mart.

2) River rock 1watt, 1AA model found at Target.

3) Inova X1 found at Target.